Effects of a Criminal Charge in a Divorce Case

Spouses thinking of divorce can end their marital union either through an adversarial approach, which is open to the public or through peaceful and private means, which is also faster and much less expensive that the former.

The adversarial approach of ending a marital union is through contested divorce, also known as court-litigated divorce which, the Maynard Law Firm, PLLC, says, is the type of divorce process that may work for couples who have fundamental disagreements about the terms of their divorce.

These terms of disagreements are not based on ending a marriage per se, but on the issues that may be affected and which need to be settled, such as child custody, child support, property division, alimony, visitation rights and adoption – these are the usual issues that need to be settled in marriages that have lasted more than five years.

While fighting for one’s rights and interests, especially with regard to child custody rights, can already be challenging, the challenge becomes much harder to hurdle if the one who wishes to fight for custodianship has been charged with a crime in the past.

Having been charged with a crime, especially a drug-related crime, can make winning divorce-related issues very challenging, especially in states where fault grounds for divorce are still observed. Worse, the more recent a criminal charge is or if the act can be established to be a pattern, the more a family court judge will rule against the erring spouse.

If the charge was made many years ago and if the spouse charged of the crime has undergone a complete rehabilitation program, then the court can overrule such past wrong act and even consider it inadmissible in a divorce trial. This is based on the (family law) context that the remoteness of an act cannot be admitted as evidence against a person, more so if such act is not part of a repeated pattern, is not is likely to be repeated and has been corrected through a treatment or rehabilitation program.

As explained by the law firm Kohler Hart Powell, SC, “Facing any sort of criminal charge is a frightening and often overwhelming situation, and while the United States justice system is one of the best in the world at effectively putting criminal suspects through a fair and unbiased trial process, it is still entirely possible for an individual to be charged with a crime they did not commit or to be treated improperly through non-proportional sentences and other procedural issues. Additionally, regardless of whether a person is truly innocent or guilty, if convicted, they could face severe penalties and effects on their life and freedoms. As such, it is critical that any person facing a criminal charge build the strongest defense possible.

Everyone who has been charged with a crime has the right to defend themselves and their rights in a court of law. However, in order to do this and for a person to stand the best chance of reducing their charges or having them dismissed altogether, having the support of a criminal defense lawyer is often not only essential, but usually extremely comforting.”